Hardy Edibles From This Year's Garden

I always get so emotionally involved with the plants that beat the odds and thrive in our short, cold, Bear Lake growing season. I bought a 6 pack of basil plants and planted them too early. Of course they froze. Or so I thought. I saw the damage and figured there was no hope. By the time I saw them again it was the middle of summer and the near by zucchini and pumpkin plants had taken all of the attention. To my surprise, they were growing! I had spicy globe basil, purple basil and a lot of Genovese basil. I used some to make red sauce and the rest I made into pesto. I use walnuts or almonds instead of pine nuts because of the difference in cost. My Grandpa Baker used to go "out West" in Utah and harvest pine nuts. I would eat them until I got sick. I wish then I would have realized what a luxury they are. I freeze the pesto in ice cube trays and store them in freezer bags. We had some purple pesto tonight and it was so good. It is spicier than the Genovese basil. I love the will to survive that those basil plants had. I thought they were goners for sure.

The other plant that did really well, given the low expectations it was planted with, was Chinese longbeans. I thought they would be far too tender for these climes. I really just bought them out of curiosity. I trellised them with a hog panel and sat back to see what would happen. I wish that I had taken a picture of them on the trellis. They were prolific and beautiful to look at. Pretty exotic for a southeast Idaho garden, in my opinion. I blanched them and then stir fried them in a soy sauce/brown sugar mixture. I want to plant them again next year and try this.  It's one of my favorite Chinese buffet dishes.